Farm Road 170 (or the River Road)

-
The route from Presidio to Lajitas (and Terlingua) runs along the Rio Grande and is known formally as Texas Farm Road 170 and informally as the "River Road." It's a two-lane highway (completed in 1961) that weaves its way up and down through Big Bend Ranch State Park. I had the road mostly to myself, and maybe saw 10-15 cars pass me on the 50-mile drive. 

Now I daresay (and maybe you have to drive it yourself to believe it) but the River Road was one of the most scenic drives I've ever driven (and believe me, I've driven a lot of scenic drives over the years on many road trips). At one time, in fact, National Geographic rated it the #1 scenic drive in America. Every turn and every dip in the road brought incredible scenery into focus. It was never-ending and after  a while I decided that I just couldn't keep stopping to take another photo.

The photos I took don't really do the road the justice it deserves but maybe they can give you just a little bit of the sense of the awesomeness of the scenery I encountered.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Driskill

-
Image
My next stop, before the first "official" stop of the day - the LBJ Presidential Library - was The Driskill , an iconic hotel which opened in 1886 and is located on the corner of 6th & Brazos Streets in downtown Austin.  Colonel Jesse L. Driskill came to Texas in 1849 and became a prosperous rancher and cattle baron. He spent $400,000 to build The Driskill Hotel as "the finest hotel south of St. Louis." I parked the car and walked to the hotel and impressed to no end. It was the ultimate in luxury when it was built and it remains the ultimate in luxury today. I was tempted to stay for breakfast since my own hotel’s breakfast was crap, but I had a schedule to keep so I moved on after 10 minutes. Portrait of Colonel Driskill which presides over the opulent lobby The opulent lobby
Read more

Blanton Museum of Art

-
Image
Every guidebook I read and every website I consulted listed Blanton Museum of Art as a must-see attraction in Austin and as one of the best museums in Austin. The art museum is located on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, and its art collections are housed in the Mari and James A. Michener Gallery Building (I didn't know that Michener, a Doylestown native son, had a connection to Texas).  I spent about an hour and a half at the museum and then called it quits. It was an early and busy day, so I headed back to the hotel to call it a night (but not until after I drove to Mount Bonnell and stopped in at  BookPeople , Texas’ largest independent bookstore and a staple in Austin’s book community since 1970). Here's some of the art I saw and liked at the Blanton Museum of Art. Plexus No. 44 , in the plaza between the museum's two main buildings An Albert Bierstadt painting (also saw one at San Antonio Museum of Art) A Fredric Remington painting
Read more

Gruene, Texas

-
Image
My Fodor's guidebook for the Texas Hill Country mentioned a little town called Gruene (pronounced "Green") and called it a "pristine portrait of Texas history" and said it was "revered as a place of Texas legends." In the center of town is Gruene Hall , a dance hall and saloon that served as the social venue before becoming a live music venue in the 1970s. The entire town has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.  I decided to stop in the town on my way to Austin as it was only a short detour off I-35. I parked the car in a large open parking lot, and did my own walking tour of the little town, which has a boutique hotel, antique stores, lots of restaurants, a river outfitter, and tons of specialty shops. For an early dinner, I decided on a burger at the Gristmill River Restaurant which is housed in the old river-powered cotton gin. For dessert, I got a scoop of sea salt caramel ice cream in a waffle cone from Rhea's Ice Cream s...
Read more